There has a been a lot of great music released thus far in 2017. From Kendrick Lamar and Maggie Rogers, to Mac DeMarco and John Mayer, we really have been blessed with some amazing creative output this year. Still, we would be lying if we told you our bodies were not aching for something new from Candy Hearts, and sadly we’re here to say there will (most likely) never be another Candy Hearts release.

BUT WAIT! There is a good reason for this news, and that is the fact Candy Hearts now go by Best Ex. We know you’re not supposed to be friends with your ex, but in this case we must all make an exception (get it?) because the name change comes with a new sound that is downright impossible to resist. Just listen to “Girlfriend,” the lead single from the band’s upcoming first EP as Best Ex, above to hear the new direction.

Speaking to Billboard about the new single, Best Ex founder Mariel Loveland explained the song was inspired by an old crush. “We were the best of friends, but he always had this older, cooler girlfriend and I’d never even been kissed before. I’d be sitting next to him at the diner or watching a movie we picked out at Blockbuster just wishing he’d kiss me (he didn’t). I’d get home and wonder if he had felt the same way, and imagine what it’d be like if this faceless, nameless college-aged girlfriend he had didn’t exist.”

A statement regarding the name change, also written by Loveland, can be read below:

“Candy Hearts has always been an extension of everything I am. I came up with the idea for the band when I was a teenager, and I think it was deeply empowering at the time to be able to be in a punk band, shout on stage, and still own the fact that I felt like such a shy, insecure girl. That was always my thing — I’m powerful despite my anxieties. I think over the past five years — after the amazing whirlwind my band has been through that I still can’t believe even happened — it really transformed from an extension of myself to an extension of my anxiety and not much else.

To me, Best Ex is taking everything that Candy Hearts is — everything that I am — and giving it a breakup makeover. Only I didn’t break up with a lying, good-for-nothing human being, I broke up with my lying, good-for-nothing anxiety. To me, this record is that light at the end of the tunnel I’ve been trying to find for the last two and a half years. Making it felt like falling and figuring out my wings actually hadn’t been clipped like I thought. I’m so happy to have this finally be out there and to have it stand, where it belongs, alongside all of our other songs, which I consider a deep part of who I am.”

We’ve already heard the Best Ex EP, and we would not think twice to call it one of the best releases of the year. There is no official release date at this time, but we expect more new about the record’s availability to be made public soon. In the meantime, you can catch Best Ex on tour this summer:

June 25: Metro Gallery, Baltimore, Md.
June 26: Canal Culb, Richmond, Vir. ^
June 27: Milestone, Charlotte, NC
June 28: New Brookland Tavern, Columbia, SC ^
June 30: TBD, Tampa, Fla. ^
July 1: Backbooth, Orlando, Fla. ^
July 2: Siberia, New Orleans, La.
July 3: Dirty 30, Dallas, Tex.
July 4: Dirty Dog Bar, Austin, Tex.
July 6: Rebel Lounge, Phoenix, Ari.
July 7: Beauty Bar, Las Vegas, Nev.
July 8: The Holding Company, San Diego, Cali.
July 9: Viper Room, Los Angeles, Cali.
July 10: Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, Cali.
July 12: Loading Dock, Salt Lake City, Utah
July 14: Vega, Lincol, Neb.
July 15: Subterranean, Chicago Ill. *
July 16: Mahall’s, Cleveland, Ohio *
July 17: Smiling Moose, Pittsburgh, Penn. *
July 19: Middle East Upstairs, Boston, Mass. *
July 20: Studio at Webster, New York City *
July 21: Foundry, Philadelphia, Penn. *

  • with Baggage
    ^ with June Divided